eco-INSTITUT Europe’s first “horizontally“ notified testing body for emissions testing in the context of the Construction Products Regulation

Since June 2016 Cologne-based eco-INSTITUT is listed in the European New Approach Notified and Designated Organisations (NANDO) Information System as first testing body in the context of a horizontal notification for emissions testing of construction products according to CEN TS 16516. “Horizontal“ means eco-INSTITUT is authorised to cross-product perform tests for all harmonised CE marking standards without having to undergo an application procedure for each single product at German Institute for Structural Engineering
. Thus: this notification enables a flexible reaction on testing requirements of manufacturers relevantly shortening the procedure’s duration.

Up to now eco-INSTITUT already was “vertically“ notified body for conformity tests in the context of the harmonised standards EN 14041 (resilient, textile and laminate floor coverings) and EN 14342 (wood flooring and parquet) and approved testing, inspection and certification body in the context of national technical approvals
by DIBt. The horizontal notification has been newly launched into Construction Products Regulation.

In the future VOC emissions testing are to be affiliated as additional part to the particular European harmonised CE marking standards by the respective technical product committees. This topic is relevant for the health evaluation of construction products especially after the CJEU’s judgement of October 2014 on Ü marks being required in Germany for construction products: starting in Oct 2016 additional Ü marking of construction products being already subject to harmonised standards is no longer allowed to be mandatorily required in Germany. During an event, hosted by eco-INSTITUT in September 2015, DIBt already announced to get more engaged in the standardisation of European product committees in terms of the health evaluation of construction products.

At notification of a testing lab a member country informs the European Commission and other members countries that a institution fulfilling the respective requirements has been designated to perform certain conformity evaluations in the context of the European regulation. Thus eco-INSTITUT is notified body for horizontal test method CEN TS 16516. Notified bodies are listed by the European NANDO list.

For more than 25 years eco-INSTITUT has been involved in the work of European standardisation of horizontal testing standards and harmonised standards:

“We are happy that we are now the first European testing lab being notified because of our core competence of emissions testing. So, for future market requirements, we are an important partner for manufacturers of construction products offering all conformity testing at one stop.“